All posts by The Boy In The Heart Shades

First I want to thank you all for following me. (No matter how many of you are actually bots.) It’s always nice to know that you’re not alone when you’re putting things out in the world. When I started blogging on WordPress, and here I had no idea what I wanted to do besides keep myself writing. Eventually, I found that I really loved creating writing prompts in the hopes that I could help other people keep writing too. I strived to put out daily prompts and even succeeded for months at a time. But I often faltered. This is part of life. If ever you fail at a goal there are an endless amount of proverbs and quotes out there telling you to try again. Here is one more: Try again. Your goals are worth it. Forgive yourself for the mistakes and learn to start again.

I’m writing this as a goodbye to these blogs I’ve kept up with more sporadically than I intended. But it’s a happy goodbye if such a thing exists. I’ve been focusing on my fiction, and it has paid off. I’ve got a paid writing internship, It’s a new step on a road I’ve been walking for a while now. But with the new responsibilities this opportunity brings, I’ve found that I’m finally ready to stop pretending that this most recent hiatus I’ve taken will end soon. I don’t know if I’ll start blogging again in some capacity in the future, but I’ve decided I need to leave it behind in the present. Thank you all again for following me. I always sign off with “Keep Dreaming Beautiful Thinkers,” because I want to believe that everyone that follows me with the dream of writing anything can make that dream come true if they keep at it.

The Straight Road to Kylie by Nico Medina was one of the first books I read about an openly gay character. In it, the main character starts off out of the closet and then goes back in to get something he wants. It’s definitely not “literary” fiction by any means, but when you’re starved for representation, you’re not always so concerned with the quality. All the books that I read when I was first accepting my sexuality still hold a place in my heart even if rereading them now would prove them to be problematic in some way or another. Think of what fictional character’s your protagonist relates to. Write a scene that explores what your protagonist has in common with this relatable character.

Write a poem about wastefulness. Are you concerned with your own wasteful tendencies or wastefulness outside of yourself? In the theme park industry, you see a lot of waste. I’m sure it’s pretty bad in other industries too, but this is one I’ve worked in. I’ve seen people wasting food, water, money, and so much else and felt helpless to stop it. I try particularly hard not to waste food in my own life, but it doesn’t feel like I’m doing much when I see whole meals barely touched and then thrown out. What forms of waste bother you most? Show them in your poem.

I’ve grown to be very good at keeping my mouth shut out in public. I’m not sure this is always a good thing but I don’t want to regret saying the wrong thing. I know regret isn’t the healthiest motivator but it is a powerful one. Write a poem about a time you said something you regret. Or write a poem about a time you regret not saying something.

The metaphor that your emotions came from your heart is so well established that we don’t even question it anymore. Scientifically they can track the reactions that emotions cause in your brain, but I guess that’s not as poetic. Write a poem that suggests an alternate source for your emotions. It might seem something ridiculous because you’re working against such a well-established metaphor but dare to be different BTs. Push past feeling ridiculous or embrace being ridiculous if it helps. Make the source something unlikely and silly if you like.

Do you ever feel like you have to fake things too much? I’ve come into roles at both jobs that involve welcoming new employees. Some days these aren’t bad roles to fill but there are still days where I have to fake it. I hope I do it convincingly enough. Write a poem about feeling fake or like you have to be something different from yourself.

I dug up the old folder I used in high school the other day, and it has made me nostalgic. I have a few friends from that time that I still talk to but the rest I’m left wondering about. What paths did their lives take? I could probably find out a lot from social media but how accurate an image would I have of their lives? Write a poem that imagines the life of someone you used to know. Go deeper than their job and location, imagine their emotional state and relationships they might have now.

Is there any place or time of day where/when you feel free? How often do you get to enjoy this feeling of freedom? How long does it last? What troubles are you letting go of in this place or time? Write a poem about the healing power of having a place or time when you can let everything go. If you don’t have such a time or place, try to find it today. Even if it is five minutes extra in bed or something else small, give yourself a moment not to worry about anything.

Write a poem about the fragility of people. Will you focus on how fragile the human body can be? Will your poem be about emotional fragility? Or will you explore how fragile the mind can be? Perhaps you’ll combine them in some way or another. Will this be a tragic poem about how we are all breakable in a way? Or will this be an uplifting poem about overcoming human fragility? Or will it be something else altogether?

Pick an animal off the endangered species list. Write a poem about this animal. What threats does it face? What unique qualities does it have? What does it eat? Where does it live? What drew you to this animal? What do you like or find interesting about it? Learn as much as you can so that you can show this animal in your poem.